Not Another Teen Movie, Can't Hardly Wait.

I'm not quite sure why I thought I needed to see this one again. It's horrible. Really, really terribly awfully horribly bad. Like the other scary-movie-style-spoofs that I've seen, most of the jokes revolve around sex, nudity, excrement and the like. Apparently, John Cryer - Duckie! - was asked to be involved:

I read the script for Not Another Teen Movie. They actually wanted me to come in and audition to play the teacher who, when the sewage thing explodes above them, is drenched in human feces. I said, 'Wait, let me get this straight. You want me to come in and audition to be drenched in human feces? No, no, no, For the feces-drenching, I'm offer-only.'

The movie's only redeeming quality was a cameo appearance by Jon Benjamin - Coach McGuirk on Home Movies. Yay! - which was actually pretty funny, though in order for it to be a cameo I think Jon Benjamin would have to actually be famous. Not just in a geeky fan-boy way.

For my money, this movie is the real deal. Not a spoof, really, but it is a great teen movie in a meta sense. It has it's own story, and it does it's own thing, but it is also delightfully self-aware. Aren't references more fun if you're not being clobbered over the head with them?

Btw, Elfont/Kaplan also made this movie, which is woefully underrated. Really. Trust me.

Specialist.

I don't have any illusions about the singularity of my obsessions. Lot's of folks have a soft spot for teen movies. Especially teen movies from the 80s.

This, however, is a laughably narrow field of specialized "knowledge."

Chapter 2...

...is finally done.

The title of Chapter 2 is "With Friends Like These - Authority and Rebellion Between Peers."

It includes discussion of The Faculty, Disturbing Behavior, Heathers, Can't Buy Me Love and The Chocolate War.

It is 53 pages long (including two pages of endnotes), so I may or may not post it here. If you would like to read it, leave a comment, and I'll be happy to send it to you as an attachment.

Oh, Ilan!

I'm still not done with Chapter 2, but I will not be defeated. It's a complicated chapter. Lotta ins, lotta outs. I'm just now starting the last section of the chapter which deals with Keith Gordon's adaptation of the Robert Cormier novel The Chocolate War.

The movie stars Ilan Mitchell-Smith as Jerry Renault. Ilan was in a smattering of movies in the '80s, including one of the six movies in John Hughes' teen oeuvre, Weird Science.

Ilan pretty much gave up acting, and took up academia. Here is his faculty profile at Angelo State University (that's in Texas), where he is now Professor Mitchell-Smith. He is an English professor, go figure, and he looks just about the same as he did in The Chocolate War, except perhaps appropriately swollen.

I read a story about him in People Magazine a while back that I like to share whenever I get the opportunity. Apparently, after giving up fame and fortune as a minor child star he completely forget about acting and started living a "normal life". When he met the woman who would later become his wife he didn't even tell her about his past success on the big screen. They had been dating for quite some time before conversation finally found its way to all things Hollywood. The future Mrs. Ilan Mitchell-Smith confessed that when she was a kid she really liked this movie called The Chocolate War because she had such a crush on the kid that played Jerry Renault!

True story. True story? I dunno. It's a good one, though.

Chapter 2...

...is kicking my arse.

Smells Like Teen Spirit

I'm sure you must remember this one - an essential element to my middle and high school years, as I'm sure it was to many, many others. I was thinking again about Murray Milner's insight on the cheerleader - as mentioned in this post - and I remembered this video and how it somehow exploits that idea. Here's the full quote from Milner's book Freaks, Geeks & Cool Kids:

Cheerleaders have no direct role in the games played, but they are the key people who organize “moral” support for the teams. This moral support is expressed through public rituals. In addition to their close association with what is sacred [the team, the “spirit” of the school], cheerleaders are ritual specialists who have mastered the ceremonial techniques of the community and can lead others in carrying it out.

Rocket Science

Thank you Netflix! This quirkier-than-thou high school movie, about one coming-of-age-not-so-gracefully story, was thoroughly entertaining. It follows the mostly intrepid trajectory of one lovelorn stammerer from virtual outcast to state debate championship contender. The strength of this flick is its cast. I can't remember a weak character, in design or execution. I can remember a few irritating characters, but that was sort of par for the course.

My only complaint is the occasional feeling that this movie was trying a little too hard to be in a certain category of recent independent successes. The narrator - who was equal parts Alec Baldwin in the Royal Tenenbaums and Ricky Jay in Magnolia - was the perfect example of what I'm getting at. No matter, it didn't get in the way too often, and there were some singularly heartfelt scenes here (not to mention the singularly funny ones).

Oddly enough, it took place in "Plainsboro High School" in suburban NJ. Though fictitious - there are two West Windsor-Plainsboro High Schools, north and south, but no "Plainsboro" - it hits about as "close to home" as possible. Unfortunately, the majority of the movie appeared to have been fiilmed in Maryland, not the Garden State. Weird, nonetheless.